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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 584 
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MADE BY BAKER-VAWTER CO. 
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REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE.

Senator Lodge offered the following report:

December 13, 1923.

To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

Gentlemen:

The Special Committee appointed by the Chancellor under a resolution adopted by the Board of Regents on February 8, 1923, met at the Smithsonian Institution on Saturday, May 5, 1923. 

The Committee was charged with the duty of considering the proposed increase in the membership of the Board of Regents and of the Executive Committee, and of reporting its conclusions at the Annual Meeting of the Board to be held December 13, 1923.

After full consideration of the suggested changes, the Committee decided unanimously-

That it is not wise or expedient to increase the membership of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution or of its Executive Committee. 

Respectfully submitted,

Henry Cabot Lodge, Chairman.

On motion, the report was accepted and adopted.

MEMORIAL TO ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.

On behalf of the Executive Committee, the Secretary submitted the following report:

December 13, 1923.

Gentlemen:

The Executive Committee, designated by the Board of Regents at its annual meeting on December 14, 1922, to prepare for the records of the Board a brief memorial commemorating the life and work of Dr. Bell, a former Regent of the Institution, begs to submit the following:

Alexander Graham Bell, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Science, a member of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, was born March 3, 1847, at Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dr. Bell was appointed a Regent on January 24, 1898, and served until February 20, 1922. During this entire period of twenty-four years he was a member of the Executive and Permanent Committees of the Board, where his sound judgment and ripe experience were of great assistance to his associates.

Dr. Bell's interest in the work of the Smithsonian Institution began many years before his appointment as Regent, his studies in acoustics particularly having been the subject of many consultations with Secretary Henry. Later, in 1887, when Samuel P. Langley was elected Secretary, he resumed his intimate though unofficial relations, as evidenced by his gift of $5,000.00 in 1891 in connection with the development of the Astrophysical Observatory, and his helpful interest in the aerodynamical researches of Secretary Langley. It was Dr. Bell who made the only successful photograph of the Langley Model in its first flight, May 6, 1896, though at this time he was independently conducting exhaustive experiment in this new science.
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